


Ye Olde Curiosity Store

by franscats



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2015-02-21
Packaged: 2018-03-14 09:34:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3405761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/franscats/pseuds/franscats
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Jim's senses come online, he is told to either get a guide or learn to meditate.  After two weeks of headaches, he decides to try the meditation and goes to a shop owned by Guide Blair Sandburg - who just happens to teach meditation techniques.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ye Olde Curiosity Store

**Author's Note:**

> If you look closely - this is pre-slash
> 
> This was written for the Sentinel Thursday challenge - #354 - Store

“Well, Detective Ellison, there is no doubt, you are a sentinel. You should get a guide.” The doctor looked at Jim’s face. “I know you don’t want one,” Dr. McKay sighed. “It is your right, but if you don’t, you are going to have to make some changes in your life.”

“Changes?” Jim almost growled, but the doctor was unimpressed, merely nodding his head.

“Changes!” he counted on his fingers. “Changes in diet, changes in cleaning supplies, changes in personal hygiene products, changes in linens and changes in clothing.”

“Great, just what I need.”

“Of course if you got a guide…” the doctor deliberately trailed off and shrugged, but Jim didn’t answer, and finally McKay continued. “Here’s a list of things you will need,” he handed over a long neatly typed sheet.

“All of this!”

“A sentinel lives a certain lifestyle detective. Get used to it or get a guide.”

Jim nodded perusing the list with resignation. All of the products, though slightly more expensive, were readily available in Cascade, except the last item. “Ah, what’s the beeswax candles for?” he asked, and the doctor glanced over and gave an internal shudder at the idea of even suggesting what he was about to tell the detective. 

Running a hand through his thinning white hair he smiled, nervously. “You are going to need to meditate every few days if you want to be headache free.’

“Meditate?” Jim’s voice rose a decibel and carried total disbelief.

“Don’t believe in meditating detective?” the doctor answered and shrugged, not at all surprised. “You will find out you need to, especially without a guide.” He sat back watching the overwhelmed man. “You will discover you need meditation to relieve stress and there will be a lot of stress on your senses,” the doctor answered, opening a drawer and pulling out a card and handing it to Jim. The detective glanced over the fancy blue lettering that spelled out Ye Olde Curiosity Store. “I give this to sentinels who don’t want guides. The owner is a guide, so he understands sentinels’ needs. He sells beeswax candles as well as other sentinel safe products and teaches meditation techniques. Go visit the man.” Jim gave a nod, but he knew it would be a cold day in hell when he’d turn up at a store looking for beeswax candles and meditation techniques.

Two Weeks Later…

Blair Sandburg was just getting ready to close up shop for the night and looking forward to Sunday off when a man came in. “Helloooo,” he began in a friendly manner, his back to the customer, and then stopped, his guide sense kicking in telling him this was a sentinel. Blair had yet to find his sentinel and hope always sprang up, speeding up his heart rate when one walked in looking to buy a sentinel safe product. An inner voice screamed maybe this will be the one. But that voice never heard an answering call from a sentinel and the guide was beginning to despair of ever finding his sentinel. Dropping what he was holding, he turned and walked forward with a smile. “Hi,” he greeted again, looking over the tall muscular man with intense blue eyes, and definitely liking what he saw. “How can I help you?” he asked, putting out his hand, knowing contact would tell if this was a compatible sentinel.

Jim looked at the offered hand and automatically reached for it, shaking it, and then everything seemed to tilt slightly. The next thing he knew there was a seductive voice by his ear. “Come on back sentinel,” the voice was coaxing as a hand slid up and down the detective’s arm, and Jim blinked looking down at the beautiful man with the sapphire blue eyes. 

“Sorry,” he shook his head and ran a hand across his forehead. ‘It’s been a long week.” Blair nodded sympathetically, trying to contain his excitement. This was his sentinel; he’d felt a flair of energy shoot through him at the moment of contact. 

“That’s understandable,” Blair agreed with a thousand watt smile, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Blair Sandburg. I’m the owner of this little establishment. What can I do for you sentinel…” he paused, eyebrows lifting, waiting for Jim to fill in a name.

Jim looked away, his face flushed, the muscle in his jaw bouncing, as he ground his teeth before answering, “Jim Ellison. My doctor says I need beeswax candles and meditation techniques.”

“You know a guide…”

Jim cut him off. “Can you help with the meditation and candles?”

Blair looked up at him thoughtfully, mind racing as he considered the man in front of him. “Absolutely, Jim, may I call you Jim?” Blair didn’t wait for an answer but continued on, “I have some scentless hand made beeswax candles and as I’m just closing, so I have time right now to start teaching you techniques.” Blair had no intention of letting this Adonis of a sentinel out of his sight, not with other guides around.

“Now?”

Blair nodded. “No time like the present and you look like your senses are stressed. We should go somewhere where we can get comfortable and started.” 

“You couldn’t just explain it.”

“Nope, your place or mine, my man?” 

Jim rubbed a hand over his jaw, feeling frustrated, foolish and tired. “Mine I guess,” he answered and watched as Blair dashed around the store closing it up for the night. Ten minutes later the pair were in Jim’s truck streaking across town. As they drove, Jim gave Blair a run down of his last two weeks and the headaches he had been suffering from, both at work and home. It had finally come to the point that his Captain, Simon Banks, had ordered him to go and get some kind of help.

“Can I ask why you don’t want a guide?” Blair asked, trying to keep his voice casual.

“I don’t need a babysitter.”

“A guide is not a babysitter,” Blair answered, angrily. He had heard this phrase so many times from sentinels who refused to bond that he just wanted to strangle someone. It was just so much nonsense. “A guide is a companion who eases over stimulated senses.”

“And takes over the sentinel’s life,” Jim finished.

“That’s ridiculous. Are you honestly going to tell me someone could take over your life?”

Jim’s lips twitched with amusement at the statement. “Look Sandburg, all I want is some meditation techniques. I’ll pay you for your time and you can be on your way.” Blair shook his head and watched out the window.

“Fine,” he answered softly as he considered the passing scenery. Just his luck, he had finally found a compatible sentinel and the man didn’t want to bond. Blair considered this for a moment. Research said the more a sentinel remained in the company of a compatible guide, the more likely a bond would form naturally, since sentinels instinctively needed to bond. Ellison was fighting something that was hard wired into his brain. Smiling again, Blair glanced over at Jim as a plan began to form in his devious mind. “You know it might take some time to get you to meditate. You are not the most relaxed of individuals. I think we’ll need to run ten two hour sessions in the next two weeks. Can you work that out?”

Two Weeks Later…

Jim looked up as he heard the key unlock his front door before Blair bounced in the room carrying a duffel bag stuffed with clothes. Blair’s apartment was being fumigated and Blair needed a place to stay for a few days. Jim had surprised himself by offering the loft. He normally liked his solitude and privacy, but he didn’t seem to mind having Blair under foot so to speak. Especially since the mediation was really starting to work. The headaches had finally fallen off the map and Jim was feeling pretty good. “Hey man, how are you doing,” the guide dropped the bag near the door and coming stood behind the couch resting a hand on Jim’s shoulder as he stared down at the sentinel’s back. Not even realizing what he was doing, Jim leaned into the touch, relaxing.

“Better, Chief, the meditation techniques are really starting to work. I haven’t had a headache at home or at work in three days.” 

Blair considered this for a moment thoughtfully. He had taught Jim meditation techniques but they had only begun to work well when the bond between them had started to grow. Blair could feel the connection tickling right below his consciousness when he was near Jim. It was barely there, an infant bond, easily broken at this stage if Jim were to reject it or find another guide, but there nonetheless. However, Jim was as of yet unaware of what was happening. Blair felt a certain sense of guilt every time he looked at Jim, knowing that a bond was growing. It made him feel like he was deceiving his sentinel, manipulating him. Every time he thought about it, he swore this was the time he would tell Jim what was happening, why he was relaxing. But then fear of losing the sentinel would set in and Blair would freeze unable and unwilling to give Jim up. But tonight he was going to tell Jim. It was unfair to let the bond continue without the sentinel’s knowledge. If he lost Jim, the idea made him nauseous, well then so be it.

“Well, you know, about that,” Blair began. “Part of the reason it is working so well is…”

“Because I’m in the early stages of bonding,” Jim finished, not looking back at Blair and doing his best to hide a smile.  
“You knew?”

“Of course, I knew,” Jim countered. “By the third day we were working together I could feel the bond growing, but I figured this would give me a chance to decide whether a guide was right for me without the hassle of meeting and greeting one through the Sentinel Center and dealing with Sentinel Center pressures.” 

Blair looked at Jim as he considered the implications of Jim’s statement and then, as he realized ALL the implications, his own sleepless nights because of guilt as he worried about deceiving and manipulating the sentinel, while Jim already knew what was happening, he punched Jim’s arm. 

“Ow,” Jim turned, face still set. “What was that for?”

“For…for…” Blair gestured vaguely and then swallowed nervously. “What have you decided? Are you going to go to the Center? Get a guide? Bond?”

“Nope,” Jim replied and Blair’s face drained of color as Jim stood and came around the couch to stare at the younger man. “I already have a guide and a bond. I don’t need any other.” He smiled and put out his arms. “That is, if the guide agrees.” 

Blair, his heart racing, smiled back as he realized what Jim was asking. Stepping forward into the arms of the man, he hugged him back, letting his head rest against the strong chest of his sentinel. “The guide agrees,” he whispered.


End file.
